Chapter 181: Chapter 160: Carnival, Night of Bloodshed (Part 2)
[Tonight, my computer restarted at least a dozen times, and I lost over four thousand words because of it. Damn you, WORD autosave. This stupid computer... I (Xiaodao) almost crashed right along with my system~~~]
In the city, rivers of blood flowed, and the air was thick with a murderous aura.
The once-bustling streets were now devoid of any bystanders, occupied only by the two clashing forces.
Finally, at a street intersection, Ling Wu stood with over 1,300 of his men. Many were wounded, all were covered in blood, their cold gazes fixed on the mercenaries across from them.
Because today was the carnival, Ling Wu had given the one thousand Knights a three-day leave the day before. Their status was different, after all, and he wanted them to be able to spend the festival with their families.
Of the remaining two thousand men, only a little over three hundred were assigned to guard the four city gates, leaving fewer than a hundred guards at each. The rest were in the city barracks, which is why they were caught so off guard. The eighty-plus guards at the East Gate were almost completely wiped out after a desperate resistance.
The barracks, however, reacted with incredible speed. In fact, the moment the enemy forces broke through the East Gate, the barracks mobilized. Ling Wu made a swift decision, sending a messenger to the Viscount’s Mansion while ordering the City Gate Army from the other three gates to fall back and protect it. No matter what, he had to ensure his young Lord’s safety!
The thousands of unidentified mercenaries who swarmed the city were, in truth, no match for the elite soldiers of the Lightning Legion. The legion’s greatest casualties came from a single, seemingly casual sword strike from that Sword Sect expert!
One strike... A wave of Sword Qi swept out, killing over two hundred men and wounding five or six hundred more!
A single powerful Martial Artist had nearly annihilated the entire Lightning Legion with just one strike! With the legion’s numbers so drastically reduced, the mercenaries immediately gained the upper hand!
If that Sword Sect expert had swung her sword a few more times, the entire Lightning Legion would likely... be finished.
Fortunately, that Sword Sect expert, conscious of her own status, only lent the mercenaries a hand with that single strike before heading straight for the Viscount’s Mansion.
Ling Wu was frantic. If this defensive line was breached, the Viscount’s Mansion would be right behind them!
One of his personal guards cried, tears streaming down his face, "Captain, a lot of the brothers... they can’t hold on much longer!"
"Dammit! Even if you can’t hold on, you’re going to fucking hold on for me! We cannot let them break this line! You’re all men, so even if you die... you’re gonna fucking die like men!"
Ling Wu roared, his eyes bloodshot.
"Kill those sons of bitches! Anyone who takes a single fucking step back is no man!"
"Charge! Look at those cowards, hiding their faces! They don’t even dare to show their identities. They must have nothing between their legs! A bunch of women in armor!"
"Brothers, follow me! Kill those bastards!"
Ling Wu flung the tears from his eyes. ’Dammit,’ he thought. ’So many of my brothers-in-arms... These are the men who were left after all the others were weeded out. Every one of them is a hardened, iron-willed man, yet now I have to watch them fall one by one.’ They had already mastered the Vajra Demon Subduing Sword Array. Of the over five thousand mercenaries they faced, fewer than four thousand remained. Their forces had already slain over a thousand of them!
Excluding those who died to the Sword Sect expert’s strike and the eighty or ninety men lost in the initial ambush, very few had actually fallen to the mercenaries’ swords!
’So, Ling Wu wasn’t afraid of this rabble at all. The greatest shadow hanging over everyone’s hearts was that elusive Sword Sect expert! Who knew when she might reappear to unleash another one of those devastating attacks? In that case, it was better to charge right into the enemy’s ranks and get mixed in with them. That way, even if the Sword Sect expert reappeared, she would hesitate to strike for fear of hitting her own people and wouldn’t dare use that terrifying Sword Qi again!’
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard two long cries. Two figures came speeding down the otherwise silent street. The man in the lead, Meng Li, bellowed, "Brother Ling Wu! The Young Lord has severely wounded that Sword Sect expert! She’s already fled! I’m here to help you!"
The entire Lightning Legion erupted in a deafening cheer!
Ling Wu let out a wild, cathartic roar. "Fuck! The Young Lord already took care of that Sword Sect expert! What the hell are we still afraid of? Charge! Don’t let a single one of those spineless cowards get away!"
"ROAR~!"
With a battle cry that shook the heavens, the thousand-plus men of the Lightning Legion charged, their momentum overwhelming as they swarmed toward the enemy.
The mercenaries on the other side were already terrified of these Penzes City soldiers. Each one fought like a veritable God of Slaughter! Even the City Gate Army, the first group of fewer than a hundred men they had encountered, had managed to kill over three hundred of their number!
The soldiers who arrived later were even more ferocious, like a pack of wolves, fighting with a complete disregard for their own lives. The mercenaries had also discovered that the soldiers with slave tattoos on their foreheads were particularly unhinged. They would gladly take a blow just to land three of their own. If they lost their weapons, they bit with their teeth, smashed with their elbows, and slammed with their knees... even on the verge of death, they’d make sure to drag a few enemies down with them. This berserker fighting style had left the mercenaries utterly terrified!
Why else would that Sword Sect expert have intervened to help them? It was because she saw just how ferocious the Penzes soldiers were! If she hadn’t stepped in and wounded several hundred of them, those five thousand mercenaries wouldn’t have even been an appetizer!
Now, hearing the enemy reinforcement shout that the Sword Sect expert had been defeated, they were all completely stunned. The shock in their hearts was earth-shattering. They simply couldn’t believe it was true. ’What kind of joke is this? A Sword Sect-level expert was driven back by the Lord of Penzes? Fuck, is he dreaming? Don’t tell me that young Lord is a Sword Emperor Level master?’
